Religion's Dangers: A Thread No One Will Read, but Needs to Be Said.

Religion is a human construction. You may think your religion is not, it's a relationship with God, but the things that mediated that relationship to you came through traditions and texts that shaped your deepest self. No faith community escapes this reality. 1/

GIven religion is a human construction (I'm not arguing for truth or falseness here, just the fact that all religious communities are the product of history and society), one of its most powerful, and dangerous, powers is that it has the power to take a transitory aspect 2/

of human life and give it transcendent authority. The relative that exists in every human institution/community becomes an Absolute, worthy of sacrificing many lives. Religions have always used "God's authority" to justify oppression, exclusion, and death. 3/

Miroslav Volf, Christian theologian, says that religion is able to transmute an act of murder into an act of piety. This is the danger of religion--it is able to mobilize ppl to slaughter in the name of God. "I don't want to kill you, but God commands it." 4/

At this moment we should be acutely aware of the actions that some are demanding in the name of God. In America a Christianity that uses fear and hate is toxic and idolatrous. If God wants your enemies dead, maybe it's not God you worship, but your own fears and desires. End